5264 Telephus
5264 Telephus is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 17 May 1991, by American astronomer couple Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California, and later named after King Telephus from Greek mythology. The dark and possibly elongated D-type asteroid belongs to the [|50 largest Jupiter trojans] and has a rotation period of 9.5 hours.
Classification and orbit
Telephus is a dark Jovian asteroid orbiting in the leading Greek camp at Jupiter's Lagrangian point, 60° ahead of the Gas Giant's orbit in a 1:1 resonance '. It is also a non-family asteroid in the Jovian background population.It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.6–5.8 AU once every 11 years and 11 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 34° concerning the ecliptic. The asteroid was first observed as ' at the Purple Mountain Observatory in January 1965. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at Palomar in January 1989, more than two years before its official discovery observation.
Physical characteristics
In both the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey, Telephus is a D-type asteroid. In the SDSS-basedtaxonomy, it is also a D-type, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes it to be a C-type.Rotation period
In June 1994, photometric observations of this asteroid by astronomers Stefano Mottola and Anders Erikson with the Dutch 0.9-metre Telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory, Chile, were used to build a lightcurve. It showed a rotation period of 9.518 hours with a brightness amplitude of magnitude.In May 2015, Telephus was observed in Chile using the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope and DECam with a red filter in Chile. The lightcurve had a concurring period of 9.540 hours and a brightness variation of 0.20 in magnitude. In May 2016, follow-up observation by Robert Stephens and Daniel Coley at the Center for Solar System Studies, California, and Linda French at Wesleyan University gave the so-far best-rated period of hours with an amplitude of 0.47. Due to its higher-than-usual brightness variation, this Jovian asteroid is likely to have a non-spherical shape.